Made From Scratch: The Premiere of "Total Theater"

At the end of November, at the press conference for the global premiere of Snow in August, Gao Xingjian said, deeply moved, that although he could have found first-rate modern dancers and stage performers in France, he could never have found the kind of "total actors" that he has found in Taiwan, who can sing, act, and have sound training in martial arts. He repeatedly emphasized that Snow in August could only have been pulled off in Taiwan.

Moreover, he revealed that the most difficult period is over, and he is filled with confidence about putting this new dramatic form on the world stage. Gao's high spirits made a deep impression on the journalists present, to whom he appeared to be a totally different man from the one who looked so uncertain and worried just three months ago, when Snow in August was just beginning rehearsals.

Nie Kuang-yan, who has designed stages for 150 productions, says that the stage for Snow in August looks simple but is in fact very complicated; it has been his most challenging project to date. (photo by Yang Chien)

Never the same road twice

Gao Xingjian, every inch an artist, has written and directed 16 plays, for which he is a widely discussed figure in theater circles in both mainland China and France. He has for many years dreamed of putting on a new dramatic form which integrates East and West but which at the same time is unrelated to either. This completely new creation is difficult to pigeonhole: "For the time being, let's just call it 'total theater,'" he suggests by way of explanation. The actors taking part must be able to sing, dance, and deliver dialogue flawlessly; they must be "total actors" to whom nothing is out of bounds. This extremely difficult task is one that Gao chose deliberately as a challenge to himself.

Gao Xingjian admits that he can't get interested in anything that doesn't look to be extremely difficult. He has never once repeated himself in any of the 16 previous plays he has written and directed. This is his weakness, and also his obsession. The constant effort to innovate creates tremendous pressure and difficulties for him, but in the end, difficulties always pass. He describes this attitude as "seeking nothing that is not difficult," then "knowing the difficulties and thereby transcending them," and finally "making the difficult things into things we take for granted."

Tsao Fu-yong, well known in Taiwan for performing xiaosheng roles in Peking Opera, is not only playing the role of Shenxiu in Snow in August, but is also the assistant director. He has been groping his way to relearning both directing and acting under the principle of the "four unlikes" set down by Gao Xingjian: unlike opera, unlike Chinese dramatic arts, unlike dance, and unlike stage plays. The challenge for the performers is enormous, so Gao, faced with profound skepticism at first among his company, decided to make the first incision with Tsao Fu-yong. Gao picked at his every flaw, but in guiding him set the tone and direction for others.

"I was completely stripped of confidence and self-esteem." Tsao, who has been doing traditional Peking Opera for 40 years, still feels a frisson of anguish in thinking about the worst days that he passed through: "The director deliberately told me off right in front of everyone. At one time he would say that my voice was too tight, and at another that my pitch was off. He wanted me to get rid of my falsetto and switch over to singing from the diaphragm. At that point I was completely depressed! Everyday I yelled until my throat was raw, but still the director wasn't satisfied!"

In fact, the problem is not that the xiaosheng is incapable of singing in a non-falsetto voice, but that this is never called for in Peking Opera. Through more than a month of rehearsals, Tsao spent time every day with a voice teacher. From his habitual singing from the throat he gradually shifted over to singing from the diaphragm, getting resonance from the head. Gradually, it got to the point where even when he wasn't deliberately projecting, every word could be heard sharply. After much hard training, he finally found the voice that the director asked him for. "I came around just one step at a time, just like everybody else. Everyone has faced frustration and angst." Fortunately Gao Xingjian also has given them words of encouragement at appropriate moments, and over time the performers have gradually regained their self-confidence.

Wu Hsing-kuo gave up all his other work to concentrate on rehearsing for his role as the Sixth Patriarch Huineng in Snow in August. He says that this role is the most challenging of his career.

Old dogs, new tricks

Tsao Fu-yong says that after passing through this arduous ordeal, everyone was able to reinvent themselves, and became filled with vigor. They no longer felt uncertainty or doubt, but had great confidence. "I believe that when the audience sees our performance they will be amazed!"

Dancer Lin Hsiu-wei, who also rehearsed relentlessly and shouted until she developed serious laryngitis, says that in two decades as a choreographer she never once had her ideas thrown back her as unacceptable-until Snow in August. And not only once! She has been found wanting four or five times, and expects to have to rework her stuff another ten times. Lin, who has worked with Peking Opera performers for many years and has a vast amount of experience, says that she can teach them to relax and change their gestures, and she can also make them into dancers. But what Snow in August demanded was not dance, but "dance that is not dance," and this had her stumped. For a time, she even began to wonder if Gao Xingjian had the wrong person for the job. But after her doubts passed, she stayed on. "Everyone trusted Gao Xingjian, since he knew the general direction." She concludes: "It was no mistake to follow him, he knew exactly where he wanted to go."

In order to satisfy the demands of the director, Lin started all over from scratch as if she were a student. She has no complaints, but in fact is filled with gratitude. "I'm grateful that the arts in Taiwan have had this opportunity to allow all kinds of performers to learn together as a team." In the course of this collective learning experience, she has broken through old forms, and has had an opportunity to completely reassess herself. Gao Xingjian did not want dancing bodies, or formulaic performance, so Lin had to develop an entirely new body language. This body language often uses the vocabulary of imagery, and she could be heard telling performers: "Your body has to be like a cloud floating by." "You're a person walking in a crowded night market." "It's as if you're desperate to shake off a snake that has wound itself around you." The performers, high in physical ability, often hammered out good moves in practice.

The experience of stage designer Nie Kuang-yan has been not much different from that of Lin Hsiu-wei. Nie reveals that Snow in August has been the most challenging work of his career. He says that rather than say that he designed the stage, it would be more accurate to say that he has expressed the director's ideas in the language of theater. Nie has done more than 150 productions, including Peking Opera, Taiwanese Opera, stage plays, ballet, and Western Opera, yet even such a vast range of stage experience could not encompass what Gao Xingjian wanted.

"He wanted something like 'the four unlikes,' a thing which is not, something that had never been done before." Nie was very troubled, and for a time did not know what to do. In order to get a better understanding of Gao's ideas, he immersed himself in Gao's book Soul Mountain, and studied Gao's paintings. As a result, from the book and from the paintings he began to grasp the director's idea of something which is substantial yet insubstantial, and at the same time is right there in front of your face.

Snow in August, which has cost over NT$16 million to stage, is, thanks to close cooperation between director Gao Xingjian and producer Tchen Yu-chiou, soon to see the light of public performance. You could say that Snow in August has been a sensation even before it has opened, so the real thing is really something to look forward to.

To be or not to be

Nie Kuang-yan emphasizes that the stage design of Snow in August is very simple. "It is supposed to look like there is nothing to it, but it should be everything. This is the puzzler that Gao Xingjian gave to me." Nie continues: "To do something very simply is in fact extremely difficult. The director wanted a very clean stage, yet one in which things that cannot be seen become visible. The colors and lines have to be very simple, while expressing very complex transformations of the stage space. It is not only a visual form, but has a great deal of inner meaning."

Nie, noting that Gao Xingjian is not only an outstanding writer and dramatist but also a quite good painter, says: "Doing stage design for a painter is something you should never ever try," since painters have their own ideas about visual arts, so it's difficult to please them. Thus, in beginning his layout, Nie planned to include the director's paintings in the background. After many discussions, he won Gao's agreement. This is in fact the thing that makes Nie most excited, because "I brought the director's spirit in." When the time comes, the audience will, through the stage design, be able to see how the director conceives of space and time in Snow in August.

The costumes for Snow in August are the responsibility of Tim Yip, winner of an Oscar for best costume design. The production requires 140 costumes, with more than 30 needing special design work. The main color scheme of the costumes is gray, and there appears to be little difference between them. But in the hands of Tim Yip, there are still subtle differences between the similar costumes and the differences become expressive when the actors move or raise their arms or legs.

Yip states that the tailoring required for each design differs, though most people will be unable to see the differences. The costumes of each performer have a definite weight to them, so each will exert a "presence" on stage. Yip has designed five costumes for the main character, Huineng, including ones for gathering wood, hunting, and monk's attire, designed specifically to reflect Huineng's identity. But Yip does not want the audience to see Huineng always changing costumes, so he is taking a design approach that is simple and coherent, yet with sufficient presence.

Snow in August choreographer Lin Hsiu-wei had her ideas repeatedly rejected by director Gao Xingjian, leaving her depressed and perplexed. It was only when she gave up completely and went back to square one that she broke through her difficulties. (photo by Yang Chien)

The light at the end of the tunnel

Yip says that time was already very short when he took on the job of designing the costumes for Snow in August. This is a completely new dramatic form, requiring a lot of polish, one whose actual shape will not be known until the end, "but if you are still figuring costume stuff out at that point then you're dead meat!"

Thus Yip relentlessly asked questions of the director, in response to which Gao gave him some music and some videotapes of rehearsals. Yip, working from these materials, let his imagination run free. When he finally set out more than 100 costumes on stage for everyone to have a look, even he himself could not resist saying: "Fantastic!"

The costumes, which are already completed, appear to be mainly similar, yet have considerable subtlety. As Yip describes it: "When the performers are not moving they should look like a still-life painting, but as soon as they move there should be countless transformations." He explains that it was only by combining Eastern and Western materials that he was able to get this totally amazing effect. The clothing of the female lead, Wujincang, is generally more complicated, and one of her costumes virtually covers the stage. "Now that's impressive." What's really amazing, though, is that Gao Xingjian, who is generally very picky, said that he liked the costumes at first sight, and declared, to Yip's delight, that they were exactly what he had in mind.

In response to such praise, Yip, his face wreathed in a smile, says: "The main thing is that we were able to exchange ideas across our respective artistic planes, which made everything easy." He says that the more similar people's ideals are, the more seamless are the things they produce together. "He cannot tell mine from his, and I cannot tell his from mine, and that's as it should be!"

There's one sentence that succinctly summarizes the process of creation of Snow in August, and that is: Pain will pass, but beauty lingers. Now, the curtain is slowly rising, and an astonishing new play is about to be performed. We wait with bated breath.

Costume designer Tim Yip (left) and assistant director Tsao Fu-yong (right) are key players on the Snow in August team; they have often discussed ways to improve the overall production.